Tabbed storage sleeves

ABSTRACT

A specially constructed retainer sleeve used to store one or more records, paper files, CDs, DVDs, planar objects, electronic disc media which is enclosed on three sides to form a pocket accompanied by an array of removable protruding tabs that extend beyond the edges of the sleeve to aid in indexing, identifying and retrieving the sleeve and contents therein. The sides of the pocket are adhered with an adhesive or thermo heat weld whose body substrate is made of either plastic, vinyl, synthetic resin, a pressed material or preferrably paper pulp. The tabs are formed out of the same substrate as the body sleeve container itself and extend beyond the edges of the pocket. The tabs make this invention unique, inasmuch as these tabs can be used for archiving, indexing, referencing and retrieving when the desired sleeve and contents thereof are referenced. These tabs have an ink receiving surface which can be scribed upon to identify the sleeve and contents therein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] 5545087 Aug. 13, 1996 Seward 462/6 6206425 Mar. 27, 2001 Heyer 281/29 4209925 Jul. 1, 1980 Brugmann 40/359 5695219 Dec. 9, 1997 Crawford 283/39 5662217 Sep. 2, 1997 Durr 206/308.1 5447334 Sep. 5, 1995 Hartstock 281/45 4143477 Mar. 13, 1979 Reynolds  40/359 6193457 Feb. 27, 2001 Pacione 412/1

2. FIELD OF INVENTION

[0002] My invention relates to a tabbed storage device for storing one or more planar files, records, cds, dvds and electronic disk medias in tabbed storage sleeves with a pocket therein and removable protruding index tabs which extend beyond the perimeter of the sleeve which aids in archiving, indexing and referencing the contents therein. Attached to each sleeve is an array of staggered removable protruding tab(s) which can be scribed or labeled upon with an indicia, ink or pencil to better identify and distinguish one sleeve from another when archived.

3. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART

[0003] Manufacturers of electonic disk storage media such as a cd, dvd, video and mini-discs and other media formats have commonly resorted to packaging their product in paper or vinyl sleeves wherein the media disc or record is placed in a protective pocket of the sleeve. This sleeve has a pocket which is opened at one end for the inserting and removing of the contents therein. This type of sleeve suffers from the following disadvantages:

[0004] (a) The sleeve is too thin to write on the edges so as to identify the sleeve when laid on its side or when stacked on top one another or placed in a file amongst a large quantity of sleeves.

[0005] (b) To identify a sleeve, the human operator must scribe the title on the face or back of the sleeve. This creates a problem when trying to identify a desired sleeve quickly, especially when the sleeve is laid face down or stacked amongst others. One must sort through all the sleeves in order to identify the one desired.

[0006] (c) Since these sleeves do not lend themselves ease of accessibility, such storage methods are time-consumming and expensive when large volumes of disk media need be archived.

[0007] Other manufacturers which utilize U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,219 use an index tab system for archiving and retrieving the record or disc but the index tab is a separate component which clips or adheres onto the disc or sleeve. This system allows for a flexible indexing system which is removable, but suffers from the following disdvantages:

[0008] (a) The index component is a unique separate item and not a part of the sleeve itself.

[0009] (b) The index component could be easily lost, destroyed and difficult to affix to the sleeve, not to mention awkward and slow to assemble.

[0010] (c) The index component is an added cost and thus not part of the whole.

[0011] Thereafter, manufacturers soon developed fragile plastic jewel cases which improved upon the storage protec tion of the contents inside. By nature of the thickness of the edge of a jewel case, a human operator could scribe and view a title. These jewel cases protect the contents inside and allow the operator to file the jewel case according to the title on the edge of the jewel case itself. The jewel cases suffer from the following disadvantages:

[0012] (a) Although the jewel cases have a thick enough spine to scribe a title on, they are cumbersome to archive because they take up a lot of space; and when placed in a drawer or file cabinet, the archivist is unable to distinguish one title from another especially if the file is too high above the visual surface or too far back in the drawer. This is because the operator must be able to read the spine edge itself where the title is scribed upon, especially if the jewel cases are perpendicular to the base of the file drawer itself and the viewer. There is nothing that portrudes from the jewel case to make the jewel case more visable and accessible.

[0013] (b) The jewel cases are made of plastic, are fragile and prone to damage and breakage, especially when dropped.

[0014] (c) The jewel cases are difficult to open and insert because of the extra steps required to open and close the lid and pop the disk out by pressing down on the locking mechanism that keeps the disk in place with one hand while removing the disk with the other hand.

[0015] (d) The jewel cases are expensive to manufacture and consists of three components (1) retainer (2) lid (3) printed jacket to identify the contents stored inside.

[0016] U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,334 addresses the usage of Tabbed File Folders as it applies to standard paper products, but does not address the unique storage system requirements of electronic disk media and size thereof as discussed in my invention. This patent suffers from the following disadvantages:

[0017] (a) Although such tabbed file folders are used extensively, this patent does not have removable tabs.

[0018] (b) Does not have a fixed pocket to store CDs, DVDs, Video Discs and other thin planar and electronic media objects.

[0019] (c) Too large and bulky

4. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0020] The tabbed storage sleeves that I invented have numerous objects and advantages:

[0021] (a) to provide a means to safely store and protect the sleeve's contents

[0022] (b) to provide a means to easily identify and retrieve disks through the use of tabs that are built into the sleeve

[0023] (c) to provide an alternative way for those who have large quantities of disks to archive their sleeves and contents therein in such a way to allow the user to index and reference their subject of interest according to the identifying marks on the tabs without wasting alot of time and money searching through their entire library.

[0024] (d) to provide a non breakable storage mechanism

[0025] (e) to provide an archiving means whose tabs can be easily scribed upon with pencil and ink

[0026] (f) to provide a user with storage sleeves that could be easily and expensively manufactured in a variety of colors and artwork

[0027] (g) to provide a means of archiving without having to purchase ancillary storage and display racks to hold their sleeves.

[0028] (g) consists of only one component

[0029] Further objects and advantages are to provide a dual purpose file and storage system which can be easily and conveniently opened to insert or remove the sleeve contents, and to provide an easy, convenient and reliable means of archiving, indexing and retrieving the desired sleeve, while also providing an inexpensive storage container that could be manufactured in an assortment of colors and color schemes.

5. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] In the drawings, closely related figures show different perspectives of the same invention from different angles along with alphabetic characters that depict specific details of the invention.

[0031]FIG. 1 shows a flat sheet of substrate that has been formed to depict the tabbed sleeve. This illustration shows the tabbed sleeve with the longitudinal scored depressions, folds, perforations and cuts as well as the trimmed sleeve itself.

[0032]FIG. 2 shows a cross-section of the substrate that is used to form the sleeve which is made of plastic, vinyl, synthetic resin, pressed material or preferrably paper pulp.

[0033]FIG. 3 shows a side view of the sleeve where the longitudinal scored depression forms a hinge at the bottom of the sleeve which will form the bottom of the pocket and shows a view of the shoulder or base of the tabs at the opposite side of the hinged bottom where the tabs release from the sleeve.

[0034]FIG. 4 shows a frontal side view of the sleeve where the two side flaps fold inward to form the pocket on the sides and where the lower half of the sleeve is folded upwards to form a hinge and the base and the two sides of the pocket.

[0035]FIG. 5 shows a side view of the sleeve where the lower half of the sleeve's embodiment is folded upwards and on top of the upper half and is affixed with an adhesive resin or heat weld to secure the flaps and sides thereof in a secured position. This view shows the side with the expanded longitudinal scored depression to allow for more than one disk to be placed in the sleeve. The expansion feature is a result of using a wider scored depression rather than a narrower depres sion or a multiple of narrow parallel depressions.

[0036]FIG. 6 shows a completed frontal view with the pocket and tabs that mirror the back view.

[0037]FIG. 7 shows a completed back view whose tabs mirror the front view.

[0038]FIG. 8 shows the top view of the completed tabbed sleeve with the open pocket facing the viewer.

[0039]FIG. 9 shows the back view of the completed tabbed sleeve with the base of the pocket and sleeve facing away from the viwer. This also shows the expanded longitudinal scored depression to allow for more than one disk to be placed in the sleeve.

[0040]FIG. 10 shows a front view of a completed sleeve with some of the tabs removed and one remaining.

[0041]FIG. 11 shows how the sleeves are stored in a file and how the use of tabs come into play with this invention.

[0042]FIG. 12 shows how a disk is placed into the sleeve's pocket.

[0043]FIG. 13 shows an alternative embodiment with numerous tabs placed across the edge of the sleeve.

[0044] FIGS. 14-15 shows an alternative embodiment of the sleeve's layout with no side flaps where the adhesive resin is applied to the front side of the back panel and back side of the front panel of the pocket, and with the opening of the pocket facing upwards toward the tabs.

[0045] FIGS. 16-17 shows an alternative embodiment of the sleeve's layout with no side flaps where the adhesive resin is applied to the front side of the back panel and back side of the front panel of the pocket, and with the opening of the pocket facing outwards toward the sides or adjacent the tabs.

[0046]FIG. 18-20 shows an alternative embodiment of the sleeve's layout with side flaps and with the opening of the pocket facing the side or adjacent the tabs. Similiar to FIG. 6 accept the opening of the pocket is facing the sides.

6. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0047] A preferred embodiment of the TABBED SLEEVES of the present invention is best illustrated in FIG. 6 (front view) and FIG. 7 (back view) and FIG. 8 (top view).

[0048] The sleeve is made of a thin substrate that when molded or folded accordingly 1, forms a pocket which acts as a protective pocket barrier j for those contents stored inside. The sleeve's substrate can be either semi-flexible or rigid in constrution. Semi-flexible material may consist of a flexible plastic, vinyl, synthetic resin, press material, or paper pulp and a rigid form consisting of a more durable plastic where the tabs break or snap off. The preferrable substrate and at present the least expensive is paper pulp, although other substate materials could be used to manufacture these sleeves.

[0049] One substrate option is the use of pressed materials which could consist of recycled paper mixed with an adhesive base and pressed together to form a flat sheet from which to form a die as in FIG. 1 or any other materials adhered and pressed together a. Other substrate bases that are durable and yet flexible is poly-ethylene-tere-phthalate (PET-hyphens here supplied to facilitate pronunciation)—available from Eastman Chemical Co. of Kingsport, Tenn. However, the base can consist of any other material that can act as a protective barrier and still be sturdy enough to retain the structure of a tab b, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, synthetic resin, vinyl, various impregnated or laminated fibrous materials, various plasticized materials, cardboard, paper, etc. Any of these substances can be scribed upon with a tool, pencil or ink to more readily identify the tab b and sleeve thereof.

[0050] The unfolded layout container sleeve in FIG. 1 consists of the following elements. The tabs b which are scribed onto to identify the sleeve in use, the tab cut c which is the cut that separates one tab from another with there being one or more tabs, d the longitudinal depression and perforation at the base or shoulder of the tabs b which allows the tabs b to be torn or broken off and removed much easier, two side flaps f one on each side of the sleeve that fold inward ff to form the sides of the pocket j or the edge of the sleeve h, two longitudinal scored depressions h one on each side of the sleeve that allows the flap f to fold inward ff over the rear panel or body of the sleeve more easily and accommodates the pocket's j expansion FIG. 5k so that more than one disk could be placed into the pocket j, one longitudinal scored depression l at the base of the sleeve to form a hinge which enables the lower half m of the sleeve to fold upward mm to form the pocket j, one notch e allows the human operater to insert and remove the contents more easily FIG. 12 as well as view the contents in the container sleeve.

[0051] The outline layout form of the sleeve FIG. 1 is either molded, die-cut or cut out with a sharp tool such as a razor blade, knife or scissor, etc. The lower half m of the sleeve FIG. 4 is folded upwards mm along the longitudinal scored hinged depression 1 while the two side flaps f are folded inwards ff along the longitudinal scored hinged depressions h. An adhesive g is place on the front side of the flaps f and then the lower half of the sleeve m folds upward mm along the hinged depression l and is pressed against the flaps f to form a pocket j. The adhesive could be any type of resin that adheres plastic, paper or synthetic resins with sufficient adhesion capabilities to hold the pocket j shut. A common supplier of adhesive materials is 3M Corporation or Elmers Glue(registered trademark) either in a liquid or adhesive tape format.

[0052] Once allowed sufficient time to adhere and dry, a pocket j FIG. 8 is formed. It is in this pocket j where the disk or contents thereof are placed FIG. 12o. The tabs b that portrude off the top edge of the sleeve are part of the substrate but at the base or shoulder d of the tab(s) there is a longitudinal scored depression and perforation d which allows the human operator to more easily tear or break the unused tabs n from the longitudinal scored depression and perforation d from the sleeve nn in FIG. 10 with relative ease while leaving a clean edge d remaining on the sleeve, yet leaving the remaining tab(s) b bound to the sleeve with sufficient strength to not separate from the sleeve and fall off thus losing the identity of the container sleeve.

7. DESCRIPTION OF ALTERNATIVE EMBODIMENTS

[0053] There are various possibilities with regard to the number of tabs FIG. 13 and their shapes and sizes to be placed on the sleeve, although the width of the sleeve limits the number of tabs b to be placed across the sleeve.

[0054] Another possibility with regard to the relative disposition of the side flaps f is to not use any flaps f, and glue g the back of the pocket j directly to the front i of the tab side of the sleeve FIG. 14 and 17. In FIG. 15 and 17 the bottom half of the sleeve m which forms the pocket j is folded upward mm along the hinged line 1, with an adhesive resin g placed on the side edge i of the sleeves and pressed tightly against the rear panel of the sleeve with the tabs extending outwards, which is now the backside of the pocket j. There is no need for longitudinal scored depressions as in FIG. 1 since the pocket j is being glued g directly against the inside back portion of the sleeve and thus the two adjacent sides have sheared edges. Since adhesive glue strips cover an approximate ½ inch wide band per side and no flaps f are being used FIGS. 14 and 16, then the overall sleeve would need to be 1 inch wider than in FIG. 6. This would limit the ability to place more than one disc or planar material in the sleeve. Furthermore, there is an increased likelihood the disk or contents will pry the adhesive loose after repeated insertions, thus making this style of sleeve unfavorable. The use of no flaps impedes the ability to quickly insert and remove the sleeve's contents. FIGS. 14 and 15 show the tabs and the opening of the pocket facing the top of the sleeve with no flaps. FIGS. 16 and 17 show the tabs adjacent the opening of the sleeve and the opening of the sleeve facing the sides with no flaps.

[0055] There are other various possibilities with respect to the relative position and placement of the tabs with respect to the opening of the pocket on the sleeve. FIGS. 18-20 show an alternative placement of tabs b, which are adjacent to the opening of the pocket or turned 90 degrees counter or counter clockwise from the position of the pocket opening as in FIGS. 1-13. In this example the opening of the pocket j is either facing the left or right side FIG. 20 depending on which side the placement of the tabs b are positioned. Whereas in FIG. 6, the disk or its contents are inserted from the top. FIGS. 18-20 allows the operator to insert and remove the pocket's j contents from the side, but this would likely cause the contents to fall out more readily if the sleeve was tilted somewhat. If pocket j is place on its side, the sleeve layout form FIG. 18 would need to be layed out differently from FIG. 1.

8. OPERATION OF THE INVENTION

[0056] The manner of using the sleeved pockets to store contents are of present use, but do not have a tabbed index filing system that enable the human operator to more readily identify and access a particular sleeve. Without tab(s), the human operator must search through all their sleeves until the desired sleeve is identified.

[0057] The tabbed index filing system in this invention allows the human operator to squeeze the sides of the sleeve so that the pocket opens up and a disk FIG. 12o or contents thereof are inserted into or retrieved from the pocket FIG. 12j. The pocket j thereby acts as a storage device and protective barrier from undesirable elements that could harm the contents held within the pocket j. The operator then scribes a title of the stored contents on one of the tabs b with pencil, ink and any other marking type utility and tears or breaks off the remaining tab(s) FIG. 10n. The base d of the tabs are impressed with a heavy score and/or perforated line c to ease the removal and clean tearing or breaking of the tab n along this longitudinal axis d at the base or shoulder of the tab from the sleeve. FIG. 10 shows an example of a tab b partially broken-away n. This will make this particular sleeve unique from other sleeves when archived in a file or storage container or cabinet make this particular sleeve unique from other sleeves when archived in a file or storage container or cabinet like FIG. 11. To retrieve the sleeve and contents thereof in the future, the operator would thumb through the index of tabs b looking for the desired title to locate the particular sleeve with its respective contents.

[0058] Conclusion, Ramifications and Scope of Invention

[0059] The reader will see that the tabbed sleeves lend themselves to the ease and use of archiving, indexing and retrieving disc media or other planar contents that is not presently available in the storage of electonic disc media industry. This tabbed filing system greatly increases the efficiency, speed of access and lowers the cost of media accessibility. This is a great asset to those archiving large volumes of disc media such as librarians, music disk jockeys who need access to cds quickly such as at radio stations, music retail outlets, schools, and other archiving institutions.

[0060] In spite of the large variety of devices presently available, the problems outline still exist and the resolution hereof resolve the matter of efficiently and economically archiving and retrieving disc and planar type media. 

I claim:
 1. A disc or planar object storage sleeve comprising: (a) container means for storing a compact disc “CD” and other planar objects, said container means including (i) an opening in one end thereof, and (ii) slot means of providing a visual indication that a disc is present in the carrier through at least one side of said container means; and (iii) enclosed expandable pocket formed by one hinged side and two sides with inwardly folding tabs that bind the front and back body panel with a glue, adhesive, or heat weld to form a pocket and opening thereof for storage and protection of contents (iv) substrate formed from a pressed material, synthetic resin, plastic, vinyl, preferrably paper pulp (b) array of various size and shape tabs that protrude beyond the edge of the sleeved container, whose (i) surface has an ink receiving surface for accepting a label, indicia, ink, pencil (ii) base or shoulder is perforated or scored with a depressed line parallel to the edge of the sleeved container which enables the tab to be easily broken and removed from the sleeve container body itself (iii) function is used for archiving, indexing, referencing and retrieving. 